CMIL’s Interview With Little Big Town
Thanks to the folks over at Capitol Nashville, CountryMusicIsLove had the opportunity to interview Little Big Town!
It’s a big year for Little Big Town! The group is celebrating their 10th anniversary! LBT just re-released their album, A Place To Land this fall. They are also up for Best Group at this week’s CMA Awards!
CMIL: You’re celebrating your 10th anniversary as LBT this year. Since LBT first formed, your personal/family lives have changed a lot. How are you able to maintain such a strong focus on the group as well as on your individual lives?
LBT: After 10 years of being together, we have seen each other go through very challenging experiences and have been there in the good times as well. I think because there are four of us, we can learn from each other and help each other when we hit bumps in the road, individually and collectively. We definitely haven’t taken the short and easy road to success, and because of that, I feel that we can fully appreciate everything that happens along the way. Our goal everyday is to take in the little moments, and not overlook all of the amazing things that we are so privileged to see. It doesn’t matter if we’re performing in front of 50,000 people, or watching one of the babies do something for the first time, all of the experiences are important to us, and time has taught us to take it all in and to work at being better people everyday.
CMIL: You have toured with some of country music’s finest acts including George Strait , Sugarland, Martina McBride, and now Carrie Underwood- what have you learned most from touring with them? Did any of these artists give you special advice?
LBT: What we’ve learned most is to be ourselves and to always believe that if you dream it, it can happen. It is amazing to us that our music has reached a wide range of fans thanks to those special artists. We feel that we’ve made true friends along the way as well, and we’ve learned that if you persevere, good things will happen.
CMIL: Tell us about the re-release of A Place To Land…what can fans expect on this version that wasn’t on the initial release?
LBT: We got to record some new music for the re-release, and also add the live version of “Life In A Northern Town” that we did with Sugarland and Jake Owen. We are always writing new music, and the new tracks are a reflection of the burst of creativity we feel from working with a new team at Capitol. We also put a song on there called “Love Profound” that we’re really proud of that had been around since the beginnings of this band. It is song written by Wayne Kirkpatrick that we had sang together before we ever met and started working with him. I think the lyric is really special to us, and has even more layers of meaning after being together for 10 years.
CMIL: “Life in a Northern Town ” has turned out to be a big success. Were you all surprised at the success of it and what did it mean to be a part of that collaboration?
LBT: We were very surprised to see that song have the life it’s had, and owe it all to the fans. It means a lot to us, not only that we did it with our good friends Jennifer, Kristian and Jake, but that we did it for the love of music, and fans responded in such a big way. It got played on the radio because they demanded to hear it, and stuff like that just doesn’t happen in this day and age of over-stimulation of the media. It just goes to show you the power of music.
CMIL: How did you come up with the name Little Big Town?
LBT: We wanted a name that reflected our small town heritage as individuals and our ideals as a band of love and family, but also represented our wide range of musical influences. After many weeks and hours of brainstorming sessions, someone turned over a CD and it said Little Big Town publishing on the back, and we all lit up. We learned that the Nashville company had been sold to Sony at the time, and after a few phone calls through Kimberly’s relationship to the previous owner of the name, he said we could have it, and the rest is history.
CMIL: Our readers hear a lot of Fleetwood Mac in your sound…Who would you list as some of your musical influences?
LBT: Fleetwood Mac is definitely in that list of influences, but we also love the sounds of Crosby, Stills , & Nash, The Eagles, Alabama , Restless Heart, Alison Krauss & Union Station, and a wide range of many other artists and styles. Hopefully you hear something familiar in our sound, but our goal was and is to be distinctively Little Big Town.
*All questions were answered by Phillip Sweet of Little Big Town*
